Thoughts? I liked it a lot, the casting is great, and Sean Bean is spot on for Ned Stark. I even liked how they dealt with the direwolves, though there are many more challenging scenes with them to come. I think Tyrion is going to steal every scene he is in.

Sure, if you go on about what they did/didn't include, how they handled various scenes, etc. I don't want that part ruined before I get to see it myself.

I agree, and so I will post no spoilers. But GODDAMN DVRs TO HELL!!! If I have to shut up about this until every guy in the office has "had a chance to sit down with the wife and check it out," my head will asplode, I promise.

Downloaded it and finished watching a little while ago. I thought it was pretty good. I didn't expect Catelyn to look as old as she does, but she plays the role well. The Daenerys scenes were very close to the original, and worked well (and I can understand why they would cast her a little older than in the novel).

cerwillis wrote:I agree, and so I will post no spoilers. But GODDAMN DVRs TO HELL!!! If I have to shut up about this until every guy in the office has "had a chance to sit down with the wife and check it out," my head will asplode, I promise.

I've reached the point where I will not start reading a series until it's complete. I waited fifteen years for King to finish The Dark Tower before I read it. I am very irritated that I didn't realize Rothfuss' The Kingkiller Chronicle was unfinished before reading those two books last week.

Really enjoyed it, scenery was spot on, casting and acting all seemed pretty excellent and I have to echo the comment about Tyrion, totally foresee him stealing every scene he's in.

Wasn't 100% sure on the intro theme but perhaps it'll grow on me, I did like what they did with the map in the intro though, it's an excellent way to give people new to the series an idea of how the land is laid out and where the various cities/Houses are, which will obviously become pretty important

"Definition: Love is making a connection with another person against long odds." "Clarification: Love is making a shot to the knees of a target 300 kilometers away using an Aratech sniper rifle with a tri-light scope."-HK-47WoW Millionaire

It bothered me ever-so-slightly that they made it seem like the secret they were trying to prevent Bran from spilling was their "relations," where in the book they were also discussing the murder of Jon Arryn. In the book, it didn't even seem as if Bran understood what they were doing (too young).

Now, I've only read 150pp into book one, so no spoils pls, but does anyone else agree?

Again, very slight annoyance, but something I noticed. The over-arching point is the same, so I don't mind that much.

Adored the cast, the staging, the music and how faithful to the books they were, but darn did they cram a lot of stuff in the first episode. The books were great in how they slowly built up the world so I'm worried some of the magic will be lost to the people new to the franchise. But that's TV for you, not like it was unexpected.

My biggest gripe though was the camera work and the direction. I can't articulate exactly what the problem with it was, but something about the chosen angles, etc. felt forced and cliched. Particularly the pans in the scenes where Dany was wistfully gazing at the horizon irked me.

I suppose it felt a bit too much like a play; the stage is set, people walk onto it and do their stuff and then walk away, like they're doing a scene. A good example was the when Rob and Ed were walking in the catacombs. First they walk in one direction, then stop to chat and finally turn around and go back the way they came.

Just feels like they weren't really taking an advantage of the possibilities of TV media yet still suffering from its aforementioned limitations.

I really liked it though. Just wouldn't be a nerd if I didn't have the compulsory need to bitch about the things I love.

I too liked the intro with the map. What's interesting is as the story develops the opening map will continue to change so you can keep track of what's going on and where. I think that is a pretty nice touch.

I think the casting is spot on! Although I am a big fan of Peter Dinklage (Tyrion) I really don't think he's gonna steal the scenes he's in. They have built an amazing cast around him; that I think can hold their own.

My one and only gripe about the show is Khal Drogo. He's way too pretty to be some gritty barbarian, again just my opinion. I loved the show!

Gabe wrote:I suppose it felt a bit too much like a play; the stage is set, people walk onto it and do their stuff and then walk away, like they're doing a scene. A good example was the when Rob and Ed were walking in the catacombs. First they walk in one direction, then stop to chat and finally turn around and go back the way they came.

Gabe wrote:I suppose it felt a bit too much like a play; the stage is set, people walk onto it and do their stuff and then walk away, like they're doing a scene. A good example was the when Rob and Ed were walking in the catacombs. First they walk in one direction, then stop to chat and finally turn around and go back the way they came.

iirc they were going to go pay respects to Ned's sister.

Yeah, I mean, how many catacombs have a front and back door? They went in, Robert paid his respects to the sister, whined a bit, and then made his proposal to Ned, they then exited, I don't see the problem.

Something that sort of bothered me was the tone change for various characters. E.g., Cersei in this part of the book still manages to come off as a whining, pampered bitch. But in the show ... well, she almost felt like a sympathetic character.

The Hound's casting bothers me. Other than that, and Cat being a bit old, the rest of the cast was spot on.

The bedroom scene with Lysa's letter also bothered me. The fact that the director put Cat and Maester Luwin in the background so that the effect was one over either of Ned's shoulders, representing conflicting opinions, just came off as waaayyy too heavy-handed for me.

Aerron wrote:Something that sort of bothered me was the tone change for various characters. E.g., Cersei in this part of the book still manages to come off as a whining, pampered bitch. But in the show ... well, she almost felt like a sympathetic character.

She did??? I got the exact opposite. Like when she was praising Sansa the acting was amazingly subtley bitter.

The Hound's casting bothers me. Other than that, and Cat being a bit old, the rest of the cast was spot on.

I thought Catelyn was cast perfectly, but ok.

The bedroom scene with Lysa's letter also bothered me. The fact that the director put Cat and Maester Luwin in the background so that the effect was one over either of Ned's shoulders, representing conflicting opinions, just came off as waaayyy too heavy-handed for me.